


Five Times Steve Left Danny and One Time He Stayed

by GeckoGirl89



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: 5 Times, Background Danny/Rachel and Steve/Catherine, Commitment, Community: comment_fic, Developing Relationship, Episode: s01e24 Oia'i'o (Trust), Episode: s02e10 Ki'ilua (Deceiver), Episode: s02e20 Ha'alele (Abandoned), Episode: s02e22 Ua Hopu (Caught), Episode: s04e21 Makani 'Olu a Holo Malie (Fair Winds and Following Seas), Episode: s07e07 Ka Makuahine A Me Ke Keikikane (Mother and Son), Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Friendship/Love, Implied Sexual Content, Loyalty, M/M, POV Danny "Danno" Williams, Pining, Retrospective, Sappy Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-28
Updated: 2017-01-28
Packaged: 2018-09-20 08:37:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9483101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GeckoGirl89/pseuds/GeckoGirl89
Summary: Steve leaves Danny so many times, and it honestly breaks Danny's heart a little every time he goes, even if Steve has his reasons for doing so. But wherever Steve goes, Danny will follow.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the comment-fic prompt "Hawaii Five-0, Steve McGarrett/Danny Williams, 5 times Steve left Danny and 1 time he didn't": http://comment-fic.livejournal.com/788670.html?thread=101908158#t101908158
> 
> This ended up being kind of a retrospective of their relationship over the years, with a bit at the end that is pure wish-fulfillment.

**Steve leaves Danny so many times, and it honestly breaks Danny's heart a little every time he goes, even if Steve has his reasons for doing so. But wherever Steve goes, Danny will follow.**

1\. The first time Steve leaves Danny isn't really his fault. Chin is the one hauling away Steve in handcuffs from the governor's mansion, and Danny races across the lawn to a police car.

Danny demands to know what is going on, and Steve manages to say, before he is forced into the backseat, that it was Wo Fat's fault. Danny believes him.

He can't understand why Chin is arresting Steve, even if his explanation about finding Steve in the mansion with a recently discharged gun should make sense in the logical, cop dealing with a criminal part of Danny's brain. But he isn't operating with the logical part of his mind; instead he is stuck in protective partner mode where the only thing that matters is keeping Steve out of trouble.

His mind briefly flashes to his ex-wife, who might be willing to make their relationship work again, and his daughter. They're waiting in an airport for Danny to join them so that they can go to New Jersey.

He taps his fingers on the glass, fully aware that he is letting go of whatever he could have had with Rachel when he says these words:

"Hey! Listen to me, I'm gonna get you out of this thing. Just hang in there, all right?"

The police car pulls away, but Danny knows that he is going to stay with Steve and make sure that he does not go down for this.

* * *

2\. Danny knows that Steve's plan to go to North Korea alone with Jenna is a bad idea before he even leaves the office.

It almost seems like they're flirting when Steve's gaze sweeps over his form as Danny mentions that hopefully Steve has done whatever he was planning to do before. Steve teases Danny about the concern he can't quite hide through his sarcasm, and Danny calls him a big jerk and says that he's "rationally concerned" (which isn't really a thing, but Danny can pretend it is).

"Do me a favor and watch yourself?" Danny asks.

"I'll think about you the whole time," Steve says, and Danny can't explain why those words comfort him.

When Jenna calls, Danny is not simply angry at her for her betrayal. His voice fills with tears when he asks if Steve is alive. Later, when Joe White tells them about his insane plan to rescue Steve and asks if any of them want to back out, Danny doesn't consider it, even for a second. Neither does anyone else.

Ultimately, he's the one to find Steve in the back of a truck, propped up like a rag doll and bloody, but blessedly alive.

Steve blinks with wide eyes as if he's surprised to see Danny there, which he shouldn't be. Danny yells that Steve is alive and rushes forward to untie his hands.

His own hands trail over Steve's lower arms for a second, a second that hopefully Steve will not notice. Steve is asking him where Wo Fat is, but Danny doesn't know and can't really muster the ability to care at this point.

"Just shut up, would you?" he says. _Shut up and let me take care of you, you idiot._

* * *

3\. Danny is hurt and worried when Steve leaves to go find Joe White and learn about Shelburne with only a vague note.

His concern only gets worse as the days go by with Steve not answering Danny's phone calls. He even admits to Chin that he's worried, but he downplays the panic swirling inside him by making a goofy comparison to himself and the father of a cheerleader on prom night.

Steve obviously doesn't understand what Danny does. Steve doesn't comprehend that he no longer has to act like the big, self-sacrificial hero, doing everything without help, leaving others behind to take care of things himself so that they can stay safe. Danny just wants to know where Steve is, that Steve is alive and okay. Steve may think it's his job to go off alone, but it's Danny's job to protect Steve and stick by him.

Danny eventually figures out that Steve is in Japan. He tells Chin that he won't just take off, and even though it's killing him, Danny stays because of the promise Steve wanted him to make in that note to stay behind and "hold down the fort" while Steve was gone.

When Steve calls him and says "long time, partner," Danny might let out some of the frustration he's feeling. He knows he sounds mad when he yells at Steve, but the moron needs to get it through his thick skull that he can't just run off to wherever without telling Danny anything. He needs to know that someone will always be worried sick about him when he leaves for parts unknown.

When Steve is about to get on the plane to go home, Danny starts to feel relieved enough to engage in his usual banter with Steve and to rant that saying stuff is "top secret" constantly isn't as cool as Steve thinks it is. The question about what Steve is wearing might be a tad unorthodox, but Steve doesn't seem to mind.

One thing he will never tell Steve is what happens when those CIA agents capture him and that one asshole threatens to take down Steve's plane. Danny reacts just like he did when his daughter was kidnapped, because Steve is one of the people Danny loves now, and Danny would kill for the people he loves. All of these absences have made Danny realize how much Steve means to him, and it's more than he can ever tell Steve.

Steve finally lands in Oahu on a helicopter, and Danny greets him with a joking reference to the cargo pants conversation. Steve tells Danny to go book Wo Fat and Danny mocks how he could have said hello, but inside he feels warmth that has been missing for weeks. "Book 'em, Danno" is a term of endearment, after all. The arm that Steve slings around his shoulders feels right and natural, and Danny feels like the missing piece of him has returned when he stands under Steve's arm and pats Steve's chest.

* * *

4\. Danny feels anxious when Steve leaves for Afghanistan with Catherine. He left with her once before, to get back Freddie Hart's body from North Korea, and made it back okay, so it's not that he thinks Catherine and Steve can't handle themselves in a hostile country.

But a part of Danny will always be terrified when Steve goes off on these insane excursions. The resemblance to Jenna and North Korea doesn't escape him, how Steve is leaving to go help someone else on an unofficial, unsanctioned mission. That's just who Steve is, the kind of person who would travel anywhere to help a friend or loved one. Steve would be doing this for Catherine even if she wasn't his girlfriend.

Danny tries his best to get on with his normal job in Hawaii, but then he gets the call from Catherine on a patchy line informing him that Steve was captured by the Taliban, and Danny's world shatters all over again. She tells Danny that she needs him to get the information to Joe so that he can help Steve out, and he does. When he tells Lou he has to go, he's not just saying that he needs to go talk to Joe White. Danny knows, that even if he isn't military and can't be very useful, he is going on that flight to Afghanistan to see Steve.

He feels out of place, even superfluous, in that military transport plane and in that base. His civilian clothes contrast sharply with the fatigues the men surrounding him wear. When the leader of the operation tells Danny that Steve may already be dead, he refuses to believe him. Steve has to be alive. Danny can't love Steve this much, have him engraved in his heart and soul, and somehow not feel when he is gone from this world. The leader gives him a meaningful look, but he doesn't say anything in return.

Danny wishes he could do more than stare at a monitor, watching the team's progress as they head to the compound. His world won't feel normal again until he sees Steve and can confirm that he is alive with his own eyes.

Danny nearly faints when the disembodied voice informs them that the "package is secure," which means that Steve is alive. His hands fall to his knees to keep him upright.

He stands over Steve when they wheel him out in a stretcher and sits by his bedside in the military hospital. He wants to be there for Steve when he wakes up.

Danny has grown roots in the chair where he sits next to Steve. Some guy in fatigues with the words "U.S. Navy" printed on them can't scare him. He's staying by Steve's side regardless of who tries to make him leave, and he doesn't care about whatever some guy who tries to intimidate him does or says. Danny's connection to Steve outranks anything and everyone else.

Steve is concerned about what happened to Catherine, of course, and Danny tells him what he knows, which admittedly isn't much. And then he stares at Danny for a long moment.

"What are you looking at me like that for?" Danny asks. Steve's confused gaze reminds him of how he looked when Danny found him in North Korea.

"I can't believe you flew all this way."

Steve doesn't seem to know what an "I love you" means, at least when it comes from Danny. For Danny, it means that flying to Afghanistan just to be by Steve's side was a matter of course, something that shouldn't be considered remarkable or surprising.

Danny glances away, not wanting to reveal too much emotion. "I had to make sure you were okay." He makes a dumb joke about the poker money Steve owes him, which makes Steve laugh, but Danny regrets it when he hears Steve's feeble cough.

"Thanks, Danny," he replies.

Danny hopes that someday Steve will realize that there's nothing to thank him for.

* * *

5\. Danny knows that it was a coincidence, but it feels like Catherine timed it perfectly to come back and persuade Steve to go help Doris when Danny wasn't in town to protest this bad idea or follow Steve wherever the hell he was going.

At least he left a voicemail this time, frustratingly vague as it was. Hearing Steve's voice is better than a letter goodbye, even if he's just saying that "something came up" and he had to go out of town. And at least he left his phone GPS on, so that he isn't completely untraceable to the people who care about him. Steve seems to have learned his lesson from Japan.

Danny called Kono and told her about the strange message Steve left, hoping that the others in Hawaii could help Steve. Right now, Danny can't, but like hell is he going to let Steve leave with just Catherine.

If he wasn't in New Jersey to help his father recover from surgery, Danny would already be on a plane back to Oahu. As it is, he's sweating bullets and feeling as if a tug of war is playing out in his heart. Steve is his family too.

He feels that anxiety until Lou calls to inform him that everything went okay in Morocco. Lou recounts Steve's reaction to the team's surprise appearance, his pronouncement that he should have known Danny couldn't keep his big mouth shut.

"And, I said, the guy's your partner, of course he was worried."

Danny bites on his lip and doesn't tell Lou that his words are only part of the truth, that Danny is always worried whenever Steve leaves and not just because Danny is his partner. If he's going to say something like that, he ought to tell Steve first.

* * *

**Eventually, there is one time when Steve doesn't leave Danny.**

It's not related to some foreign mission. It's early morning, barely past dawn, and Danny is awake because Steve sat up in their bed.

Yes, you read that right, _their_ bed. Because after all this time, Danny finally found a way to let Steve know exactly how much he means to him. And miraculously enough, instead of leaving or acting freaked out, Steve stayed and reciprocated in kind.

Danny doesn't let on that he knows Steve is awake. He's waiting for Steve to leave the comfort of their bed for his early morning exercise routine. Danny selfishly wishes Steve wouldn't go, but he admitted to being in love with the guy, and he knows that he will often have to wake up alone. But as long as Danny can get up and spot him swimming in the ocean from the lanai, he will be okay. Of all the ways that Steve might leave him, this one is the easiest, because the distance and the danger is minimized.

Instead of getting up, Steve lays back down and plasters his naked body against Danny's back. Danny chuckles when he feels Steve nuzzling at the nape of his neck.

"Babe, what are you doing?"

Steve hums, and Danny doesn't need to see him to know that he's smiling. "I just decided not to leave this morning. Weren't you the one saying I shouldn't go places without you?"

Danny laughs again. "I meant foreign countries, you goof. You can go swim in the ocean if you want."

Danny's blood is rushing through his ears when Steve's hand skims aimlessly over his lower stomach. "I just got you in bed with me. Why the hell would I ever want to leave?"

Danny grins and turns in Steve's arms. He pushes Steve back onto the bed and climbs on top of him.

Steve looks so perfect like this, breathless, excited, awestruck, and all his.

"I've changed my mind," Danny says. "I'm not letting you ever leave this bed."

Steve smirks. "You won't let me?"

Danny shifts until the entire front of his body is pressed up against Steve's. "That's right. I have ways to keep you here." Danny leans down to kiss Steve's neck. "And I'm planning to keep you forever."


End file.
